News

I would like to thank my fellow Committee Members for their support and assistance during the 2012/13 membership year. Additionally I would like to thank those Members (non Committee) who frequently offer their assistance and time, and all Members & Sponsors for your continued support of the Wellington Mountain Bike Club.

We have seen growth in our Club Membership this year (149 vs 56 in 2012), this has been largely in part to our expansion of club shuttle days and offering discounted memberships with our event entry.

A year of change

In December 2012,WMTBC become a Registered Charity. This is huge! it makes the WMTBC more desirable to funding organisations & has meant we could receiving donations from the general public and as you will see in the Financial Report, they have already started coming in.

In previous years, the committee have been ‘front-end’ focused with running plenty of events -whereas this year, the committeehas focused on solidifying the club’s foundations. A lot of time & effort has gone into streamlining ‘back-end’ management systems.

WebsiteWMTBC’s new website went live in July 2012. This streamlined our membership & event management systems & also allowed us to receive online & credit card payments.

Document Storage and Collaboration
Our Secretary installed and streamlined the way the Committee stores and shares its files.

I would like to thank all those who have been involved with these projects, the Club as a whole has benefited greatly from your hard work.

Events

The Club has continued our strong relationships with both Revolve & PNP in support of both there and our events.

Once again, the Clubs Mt Victoria Super D & Miramar Enduro events were a hit. Competitors of the Miramar Enduro turned out with huge smiles, despite the abysmal weather. Mt Victoria Super D pleased the punters, but was run by skin of teeth this year. Major factors were the weather, time of year & a low number of volunteers.

The Club are still struggling to get the volunteer numbers required at our events.

Our shuttle days have proven to be hugely popular with both members and non-members. By running these events both within and outside of Long Gully, the Club has also attracted new riders who would normally shy away from DH events.

Unfortunately, we were unable to run any DH races over the last year due to time & resource constraints, but rest assured, we are gearing up to run a Wellington DH Series in late 2013.

However, this will still a huge challenge for us if we are unable to source volunteers to help with our events – this is particularly something the Club needs in order to remain successful.

Looking ahead to 2014, we’re planning more enduro style events as they are attracting new riders & members to the club.

Community engagement

Over the last year, the Club have officially taken on the trail management of Mt Victoria & Polhill (Brooklyn Trail Builders) in our ongoing effort to expand our trail presence in Wellington.
We welcome Craig Starnes and Kev O'Donnell from BTB to the team.

This means WMTBC are now managing trails in Long Gully, Miramar, Mt Albert, Karori (98 DH), Mt Victoria, Brooklyn & are currently working with the Wellington City Council (WCC) to officially incorporate the Portal trail into the WCC trail network.

WCC kindly donated a small amount of WMTBC Trailhead markers, so you will start seeing these out on the Wellington trail network. The Trailhead markers letother trail user know that the Club built and/or maintains that trail and invites them to contribute to our efforts.

Diggers summit.

Held in association with Wellington Trail Alliance, the Diggers Summit was an opportunity for all volunteer trail builders in the Wellington region to get together, listen to talks from internationally regarded trail builders and swap their own stories so they could learn from each other. Wellington has a strong volunteer trail building community and the Summit was about making it stronger. The summit also helped expand WMTBC’s presence in the community and we will building on this when we host the MTBNZ and NZ Trail Fund conference here in September.

Wellington City Council approved contractors.

BTB were donated $5,000 from the Wellington Marathon Clinic to go towards paying trail builders to carry out work on their trails, so the WMTBC have had to register as an employer so we can pay employees. Before work could start, the WMTBC have had to gain approval from the Wellington City Council.

After 4 months of paperwork, the club is the final stages of becoming an approved WCC contractor. What this means the club can do in the future: carry out paid work for WCC. We believe this is a first for any MTB club in the country to become an approved contractor to a local council and is a testament to the expertise of the trail builders in our club, and the quality of trail we can deliver.

WMTBC in MTBNZ

Two of our committee members have been elected into the Mountain Bike New Zealand committee.

Jordan Moss: President

Ben Wilde: NZ Trail Fund

The club acknowledges the hard work that these two are doing to sort out the issues between BikeNZ and MTBNZ, and to establish the Trail Fund.

Trails

Long Gully:

Thanks to Jono Baddiley, Tony Harvie, Adrian Armstrong, Dan Smith & everyone who has volunteered their time to maintain the Long Gully trails. Tony has been keeping the Race Track in top order, andAdrian has been fettling away on 420. During the beginning of the season, we had no owner for Jaw Bone, and it was getting quite overgrown. Thanks to Dan Smith, Dave Nendick, Brett Turia for getting this track open again and their continuing efforts along with Jono and Mike.

Karori:

Thanks to Tony Harvie for his continued efforts in Karori on 98DH. There have been some issues with young kids getting in there and altering the track, and Tony has been working with the Council Ranger team to work through this issue and he has been repairing these features.

Mt Victoria:

Steve Wallace has taken up the leadership role in managing the Mt Victoria trails as part of agreement with the council. This has included maintenance work on existing trails such as Hippy’s and TTS, along with helping out PNP withmaintenance of the Zig Zag track. The Mt Vic Trails crew have also put in two new lines on the Super D track, including a short jump line to get riders off the walking track before the saddle and then a new line on Mt Alfred, once again to provide a more interesting alternative to the walking trail that leads into Rod’s Drop

Miramar Track Project:

MTP started off the year with an accolade, receiving an Wellington Airport Regional Community Award for Health & Wellbeing. This shows how Miramar and the Club’s trail buildingactivities are acknowledged andappreciated by the community. Along withmaintenance on the existing tracks, the new Solitary DH line has bedded in with more work planned to make it more sustainable, whilst keeping the feel. In recent weeks, work at the Water Towers area has ramped up again, with improvements to the Kids Track and the Pump Track extension.

A significant amount of planting was done in the past year, with over 500 plants going in around the trail network, in particular Solitary and most recently around the Pump Track extension.

Brooklyn Trail Builders:

It has been a busy year for the BTB. The Windmill track was finished, and now offers a more interesting uphill alternative to the road to access the trails further out in the Te Kopahau reserve.

On the city side of the trail area, work isunderway on both sides of the valley. Work on theSerendipity track (Grade 4 down only) is wellunderway andtargeted for the end of the year. This will provide an alternative descent to the very popular Transient track. Work is also in progress between Holloway Road and George Denton Park. After a long consultation process, led by the WCC, permission has been given to build a new two way, grade 3 track up to the park. Once this is complete, then the existing Squatters track will be repurposed as a Grade 4 descending trail. These two tracks will provide a city side loop for this popular trail network.

Along with ongoingmaintenance, the BTB has worked with other stakeholders in the area to plant 600 trees in the area. A full report of the BTB activities is available on the clubwebsite.

Portal:

The club has been working with the WCC to get this track sanctioned as anofficial part of the track network. It is currently classed as an unsanctioned track in an area open for mountain biking. This quite different to an illegal trail (such as those on Tinakori Hill).Eugene Black has worked on a comprehensive plan to rebuild the features to council approved standard. The agreement is that once this, and the handling of the intersection with the walking track is done, this track will become an approved, official track. The club has committed some funds to this project, and we will be looking for funding to help complete these works.

Ongoing challenges

Volunteers - as noted earlier.We need to grow the number of people who can both help organise, perform jobs and marshall at our events.

Illegal trail building in the community makes both mountain bikers and WMTBC look bad - it affects our sanctioned work we are carrying out with the WCC.

Looking forward to the next year.

The committee has developed a strategic plan which puts in place some tangible goals we are looking to achieve in the coming year. We will present this plan at the AGM. These goals have been aligned with a broader vision for the next 5 years. I encourage you all to review these plans, and invite you to help us make these a reality.

Please continue to support your Club & your incoming Committee. Thanks for all your support over the last two years.

Ok, so you might not care there are local government elections later this year, but you should care about this.

The Wellington City Council are asking for submissions on their Capital Spaces Plan. This is the plan that they use to sort out their priorities in sport and recreation, and that includes the track network.

If you want to see more and better tracks, then you need to make a submission.

Even though the online form has 10 questions in section two, none are compulsory. You can answer just one, or simply leave a comment at the end.

Simply just say something like that you are a mountain biker, and that you want to see Wellington continue to be a great place to ride.

The Club's stance is that overall the plan is pretty good. There is good support for mountain biking throughout the sections of the plan.

However, we'd like to see the council:

recognise Wellington's track network as a major asset to the city, and it needs more, not less, investment to realise it's potential.

supporting informal recreation like mountain biking along side formal sports

looking to increase the amount of land available for recreation, particularly tracks. The club is particularly interested in areas on Watt's Penisula (Miramar north of the Prison) and the availability of any land that could be opened up for track development to the north, between the CBD and Tawa.

investing and providing more support for the areas of the council that we work directly with, such as the Ranger team. We can do more if we have more access and support from the council.

doing more to promote the trail network. It is rare to have such quality trails so close to an urban area. More people using the network, should lead to more investment and more tracks.

This plan hasn't been reviewed for a number of years, and it may be many more before it is again, and it will set what gets money and what doesn't for some time to come. So take 5 minutes and fill out the form online.

It has been a pretty exciting last couple of days in Welly. No doubt you will have all seen trees down right across the city.

Our friends in the WCC Ranger team have been working flat out. Over 400 callouts since last night and that is just for trees on roading reserves. With the weather looking better for the weekend, no doubt many of us will be looking to head out onto the tracks.

Please take care and look out for fallen trees and branches.

With the number of call outs and the focus on residential properties and road reserves, the council has not got out into the track network yet. So you should expect there to be windfall around every corner.

We have had reports that there is significant damage to some tracks on Mt Vic, with half the bench slipping away in places.

Track Status - updated Tuesday 2 July

A big weekend for work parties and there are more to come in the following weeks. The following is the status of the tracks that are maintained by the club:

Long Gully

Race Track - Clear

420 - A few small trees down

Jawbone - Clear

98DH Karori - unrideable

Trail leader, Tony Harvie, confirms that 98DH has been hit very hard by the storm. There are many large trees down in the area. There are also large trees down across the Kids Track and Wahine.

Polhill - all tracks open!

Miramar Track Project - major damage

Jail Brake - Clear. A crew of 14 adults and a lot of kids turned up on Sunday the 23rd of June to clear the trail. Removed small trees and branches, debris is up to 30cm deep in places on the track, unblocked the drains etc. Trail will be in better shape than it was before the storm in a couple of days once it has had a chance to get rid of some of the water that has fallen this past week.

Solitary - Half a dozen trees down on a the section between the JB Pine Tree Berm and Merge into JB, more down on bottom chute. Hope is to get the top section open by the end of next weekend.

Conviction - Clear - The big slip has been cleared, and whilst there is still a big tree down across the curved bridge, there is a new diversion in place that takes you up towards Nevay Rd (bit of a steep push on a bike). At the top of the track you can turn left and continue on along Boot leg

Boot Leg - Clear to the Boot, closed after that. - A new exit of the track has been put in. This will need some gravel, but now takes you out to the clearing. From there the best bet is keep going down the grass and under the Pine Tree where the old Prison sign used to be. A new line is going in to link into the last part of the track and should be finished in a couple of weeks.

Repeat Offender - Some trees down on the climbing berms. These will be cleared by hand, rest of track is clear.

Mt Vic - major damage, some tracks open

Mt Vic Summit - severe damage.

Hippy's - blocked by large tree. But alot of work has been done to tidy up the rest of the track. An Arborist has been in and looked at the tree and it has been assessed as too dangerous to try and clear it. A scratched out line appears to be in place, but a new permenant line will be marked out. Working parties to be advertised shortly.

Super D* - is clear from the end of Hippy's through to the Finish. However there is a large Macrocarpa where the finish line should be and another on the berm closest to the Crawford Rd/Wellington Rd Roundabout

Shuttle Cock - clear. However there is a large gum tree across the walking track on the velodrome side that cuts off this loop.

Mt Alfred and Rod's Drop - Trees are still down, but new lines around the trees have been benched.

Damian's - bottom clear, tree across section before the field.

TTS -clear

Park Bench -clear

No reports for Grom, Rock Drop and Virginia .

Walking Tracks on North Face - severe damage. The old line down from the top is littered with large trees. In particular the section below Hippy's to the clearing. It appears all the walking tracks in the triangle from the Summit, down to Charles Plimmer Park and Majoribanks Street are blocked to some extent. No eta on when these will be open. Be aware, in some places very large trees have partly fallen over and are being held up by other trees. It is best to stay well clear of this area.

Portal - open

The track is now open top to bottom with some diversions in place. More work is ongoing.

Rollercoaster - no report at this time

Other tracks

Deliverance is clear, but the track has changed signifcantly. A section of the track at the bottom has be rerouted.

Tinakori Hill - Jono has been through and has this update
"Many blockages over te ahu mairangi as well. At the northern end of the northern walkway (off wadestown road) two trees have come down - one you get get under (I cut the branches out of the way), the other has taken out half the track.

The southern end of the walkway (4wd track that drops down towards the chinese embassy) is blocked by a massive slip that has taken out 3 or 4 large trees. Connector above chinese embassy walkway also blocked by a couple of large trees."

Colonial Knob - The track through to Ohariu Valley is not passable and quite dangerous...the pine forest has huge damage and many many fallen trees.

Wainui Track Project - clear, but very wet. Give if a few days to dry out.

What can you do to help?

Join A Work Party - Earn Some Trail Karma

If you have been thinking about joining a work party, now is your change. Most of the work required at the moment is pretty easy clearing of leaves and small sticks and branches.

The club and our project will be organising work parties over the coming weeks to clear as many tracks as we can by hand.

For track damage, particularly to tracks that are managed by the club, please either

Contact us via info@wmtbc.org.nz with a photo and details of where the damage is or;

Post to our Facebook page

We will be organising work parties to get out and fix these tracks just as soon as we c

Large Fallen Trees

For large trees and branches, the council will get in and clear these. We can all help by letting them know where to find them. A reminder - the use of chainsaws on WCC land by members of the public is strictly prohibited.

WCC FixIt App

Can't Dig - Then Donate!

The Wellington Mountain Bike Club is a registered charity. You can donate on the site, either via PayPal or directly into the club bank account.

When you Donate, you can choose which trail area is the recipient of your funds. Your money will be used for tools, equipment and materials to reinstate, maintain and if necessary, build new tracks in your chosen area.

All donations over $5 are eligible for a tax credit and the club will issue you a donation receipt.

As all ways, take it easy on your first DH run. Stay safe.

The days are short, the nights are cold, but riding doesn't stop for a little bad weather.

World Cup DH and Enduro World Series Underway

A late start to the international racing season this year, but some excellent results for the Kiwis at Fort Bill. Congrats to the Bulldog and Blenki for making the podium and a shout out to the club's own Bryn Dickerson who qualified for the finals.

If you haven't seen it, Bryn keeps a blog of his exploits at Racing for my dinner. Here is hoping there is a post soon about his latest foray into the World Cup series soon.

Next race is at Val de Sole this weekend. Full coverage on Redbull.com

At the end of the month, the Enduro racers head to France for the next round of the EWS. Will the (ex) downhillers continue to dominate, or will the all mountain specialists rise to the challenge?

Club AGM

We will be running through a report of what was achieved this past year, a look at the clubs financials, electing new officers and going over some goals for the next membership year.

Nominations

It is great to see the majority of the committee wants to stand again. If you would like to contribute for the management of the club, then nominate either yourself or someone else for a role on the committee. All nominees need to be current club members, and if you nominate someone else, please supply their details so that we can contact them and confirm they wish to stand.

Items for the Agenda

If you wish to raise a matter for the membership at the AGM, then please contact the secretary and we will add this to the Agenda under General business. It helps matters along if you can put the details of the matter or proposal into writing so it can be distributed.

Why do I have to register?

The club will be putting on pizza. We are told that some people don't like Hawaiian with Olives and Anchovies. If you want to ensure that there is something else on offer, then please register.

Wellington City Council: Our Capital Spaces

The WCC are reviewing another of there management plans that effects how the track network is governed and how much funding it receives. This follows on from the Town Belt Management Plan that the club, and many club members submitted on early in the year.

Your trails need you

to make a submission

The club and our projects will all be making submissions. But the more submissions we can get from club members and riders, the better. All you need to do is take a scan of this plan on the council site, then fill in the online form. Aside from your contact details, you don't need to answer all questions, you can just answer one if you like.

The most important thing you can do is let the council now how important mountain biking on WCC tracks is to you.

The club will be publishing our submission on the club website after the AGM as it will be aligned with the strategic plan that will be presented to the membership at this time.

WORD Riding Camps

Looking for something to do these school holidays? We have just received this from Ash@WORD.

WORD Winter MTB Camps!
July School Holidays 2013

We're launching WORD (Wellington Off-Road Riding Dept) winter MTB camps, whoop whoop! These will be open to kids of all MTB skill abilities. Each morning we'll jump in the WORD van and head off to a new riding location. From 8.30am-1pm we will be shredding, climbing, launching, shuttling and building in Wellington!
$150 for each camp ($100 for the 2 day camps), sweet! Bookings open NOW!

'Tis The Season For Digging

The dirt is soft, so digging season is in full swing.

The Portal is receiving a major overhaul, with all the structures being rebuilt to council standards. Once this is done, then it will be a canditate for being officially included in the track network. Check the Club facebook page for details.

The Brooklyn Trail Builders are making great progress on their new track, Serendipity. There are multiple digs each week and they love to see new faces. The hope is to get this up and running and will bedded in before summer.

The Miramar Trail Project are working away on 3 fronts, with Solitary receiving some tweaks, a new pump track extension in the works and some new features on the kids track. There will also be some planting days coming up. The project will be moving a number of their digs to Saturday afternoons, check the FB page for event details.

Out in Long Gully, some new life is being breathed into Jawbone. A new berm is already in and there are some more plans afoot. Once again, check facebook for details.

The Wellington Mountain Bike Club would like to thank all the competitors, volunteers and sponsors for all contributing to making this year's URGE Mt Vic Super D a grand success. A special thanks to our friends at PNP for helping out with the timing and traffic management on the day.

Well it has been a long time between drinks on the newsletter front. That long, dry, dusty summer is just but a distant memory. Time to embrace winter, with all it's slidey, night ride goodness.

So what has been happening?

Events

Long Gully Shuttle Days

Shuttle days were held in March and April, one dry and one wet. These wouldn't have been possible with out the help from all the volunteers. A special vote of thanks to those keep the gully trails in order. Cheers to Tony Harvie (Racetrack), Adrian Armstrong (420) and Dan Smith and his helpers for leading the charge on tidying up Jawbone. Just a note to all, that tools are often left on the side of the tracks in the Gully on purpose by the builders when they are working on spots. Please leave them there.

Events Manager, Mike Stirrat has been out with his camera, and you might want to check out the vids on Pink Bike.

Escape from Mt Crawford Mini Enduro

Miramar Track Project ran their annual fundraiser and on a wet and wild Sunday a few weeks back we got 55 competitors who turned up and try to claim the King and Queen of the Mountain Crowns. Big thanks to Burkes Cycles for their support of the event, and PlaceMakers Evan's Bay for showing up with their mega BBQ Trailer. After some negotiations with LINZ (who are managing the Prison Land) we were able to start right out side the prison. Congrats to The Weazel for taking the men's overall, and Sarah Atkin for the women's. View the fill results.

The lads from Burkes teamed up with Holden Bros to put together this clip that captures the day pretty well.

Mt Vic Super D is back!

26 May

Yup it is back. And being held later in the year, we'd expect the course to throw up a few more challenges than the dry and dusty runs of the past couple of years.

Get your entry in today via the club web site . This year there is a discount for all Welly MTB Club members, so entry is $35 for club members, $45 for non members.

Event organsior Steve has been doing some fettling on the track, so expect new lines to challenge you.

A big thanks to all the sponsors of this event, and especially URGE helmets who are back again as title sponsor and are fronting up with a new helmet to all class winners.

One change to be aware of this year is that there is a compulsory seeding run. So you will need to check the event time table and make sure you are there to get your run in.

We are still on the look out for volunteers to help with timing, marshalling and driving. If you are coming to the event, and bringing a mate or family member who can help out, then please drop Steve a line via the Club facebook page

Trail Building

In addition to all the good work going on at Long Gully, trail crews have been at work all around Wellington.

Brooklyn Trail Builders

The Brooklyn crew have been going gang busters on some new trail developments. The alternate downhill for the bottom of Transient, called Serendipity is well under way.

In addition to this, the club and BTB are working with the WCC to open up some trails on the other side of Polhill that would link into George Denton Park. This required a great deail of consultation with the community, and some hard work by all involved.

The club would like to thank Mud Cycles and Floyds Cafe for their support of these digs.

Miramar Track Project

The wet weather means that trail building is back on in Miramar. Now the Solitary track has been ridden in, some refinements and improvements are being made to make it more sustainable during the winter months, whilst trying to keep the original feel of the track.

If you have been up at the water towers recently, you will notice there is a huge amount of clay sitting and waiting to be shaped into the pump track extension. Hamish Kay has some excellent plans to extend the existing track and build different lines to cater to both the huge number of kids using this track and more advanced riders. At the moment, digger time is what is required, so if you have contacts in the Earthmoving world, then please let the crew know via their facebook page.

Some new features are being built for the kids track off site and should be in place in the coming months.

Miramar runs their digs on Sundays from 2pm. Check facebook for event details.

Mystic Portal

The club is happy to announce that we have been working with the city council to get this popular track added to the track network. At the moment it is classified as an unsanctioned track in an area that is open to biking. The goal is to make some changes to the track to bring it to a level that the council will be happy to approve it.

There is going to be some significant work required, particularly in the area where the Portal crosses the walking track and to replace some of the old decaying stunts. Eugene Black is leading the charge here, and is organising digs. Check the Club Facebook page for details.

Notice of Wellington Mountain Bike Club Annual General Meeting

Thursday 20 June at 7pm

Add it to your diaries, the date has been set for this year's AGM. It has been a busy year for the club, with a lot of working going on behind the scenes. This is your chance as a club member to come and hear about some of these developments, the plans for the future and give your feedback.

So long 2012

It has been a busy end to 2012 for the club. It may be the holidays, but as we roll into the race season, it is still busy as ever. In this edition of the newsletter we have a summary of what has been happening and what to look forward to in 2013. Here's hoping the weather is kind over the rest of the holiday season so we can all get out and enjoy some riding!

Wellington MTB Club Now A Charity

Way back in August, the committee put in an application for charitable status. After some toing and froing, we received the good news in the middle of December.

The club is now a "not for profit incorporated society with charitable status" (quite a mouthful). This means that it will be easier for us to apply for funding and that any one who wants to make a donation to the club can receive a tax credit. We will be firing up our donations page on the site in the New Year.

A Couple Of Reminders

Please Check Your Details On The Club Site

If you signed up for club membership via one of our events, you may need to go back and complete your membership by accepting the club rules and long gully waiver on your web site profile.

Simply log into the club site, and use the "View Profile" link on the left hand side under the navigation. Use the edit tab and make sure that you have accepted the rules and waiver then save.

If you are under 18, you will need to provide details of a parent or guardian you can accept these on your behalf. In order to ride the Long Gully Trails, you must accept these rules and conditions.

4WD Vehicles Only In Long Gully Please

A reminder that you must have a 4WD vehicle with a valid Welly MTB Club car pass to shuttle Long Gully outside of club shuttle days. These are the club rules and they are in place to ensure your safety and to minimise the impact of vehicles on the private roads in the area. Please do your bit to ensure that we can keep access to this area by following these rules. Remember the speed limit is 30 km/h at all times on these roads.

All Tags And Passes Have Been Sent

If you have signed up for the club, you should have received your gold tag for the 2012/2013 season. There have been a few reported issues with tags getting damaged in the post, so if you have not received yours, then please contact Dan, our Memberships Coordinator at memberships -at- wmtbc.org.nz.

Diggers Summit

Over the weekend of Nov 30th / Dec 1st, the Club partnered with the Wellington Trails Alliance to host over 80 people at the first Diggers Summit. We had a wide range of people attend the conference from all over the region.

On the Friday, there was a series of talks covering everything from what is the WTA, working with land owners, sustainable trail design, and native planting. Jeff Carter rounded out the session with an epic slide show of the work NZ Trail Solutions is doing around the world. The summit also saw the launch of the Trail Fund. Look out for more on this initiative soon. A website is in the works, but for the moment you can follow updates on the Trail Fund facebook page.

Saturday was on site, with the WCC Ranger team doing sign offs on power equipment, and a series of on track sessions in smaller groups. The Saturday avo ride morphed into a shuttle session at Miramar and Mt Vic, which just happened to coincide with an Enve demo day. Cheers to Ash from Bike Wellington for helping us out with the shuttles. We rounded the Summit off with the Diggers Ball at the Southern Cross on the Saturday night.

It was great to see representatives from DoC and the local councils, plus trail builders both new and old from right around the Wellington region. There is a national event in the works for the middle of 2013, so if you missed out this time, check back to the club site in the new year for more details.

Tracks Update

The holiday season normally sees a slow down with new track builds and maintenance as trail builders get out and ride, however there has still been a lot happening.

New Tracks Approved for Polhill

The Windmill track and Car Parts upgrades are barely finished and the Brooklyn Trail Builders are right back into it. Just before the holidays, the team received the green light for two new trails in the Polhill area. The tracks will go from Holloway Road to George Denton Park. The existing walking track will be upgraded to a dual use (mtb uphill), and a new downhill track will be built. This is great news for a popular riding area. See the BTB Facebook pages for updates and dig days.

Race Track

Anyone who has been to a shuttle day recently will know that the Race Track is in tip top condition at the moment. Tony Harvie has been fettling away on the track keeping the lines open, big thanks to Tony for the hours that he spends working away on the track.

4X Gets A Touch Up

In early December, Steve Wallace and the Mt Vic Trail Crew gave the Mt Albert 4X some love. Grass and weeds were cleared back and some shaping done. The hope is that this will see the track through summer. Later in 2013, the club will be looking to move some new clay in to complete a more comprehensive overhaul. Keep up to date with the Mt Vic Trails crew on Facebook.

Solitary Bedding In

The dry weather is seeing the Miramar Track Project taking a break for few months. But the new Solitary trail is open for riding. The top half is pretty much done to spec and you can ride just this and join back in (carefully) with Jail Brake at the small rock drop/hair pin. After this Solitary gets much rougher, in particular the corners. If you like it like this, then now is the time to ride it. In the new year, those tetchy corners on the bottom section will be getting built up to be more like those at the top of the track.

Town Belt Submission

At the beginning of December, submissions for the new Town Belt Management Plan closed. Thanks to all those who did a personal submission. The Club and the Brooklyn Trail Builders both did submissions to go along with the Wellington Trail Alliance one. Oral submissions are in the New Year, and the club will be fronting for these as well. In summary, the plan is encouraging for mountain biking in the Town Belt, and the club is in support of then new plan.

Events Update

Shuttle Days Going Off

Club shuttle days are going from strength to strength. After a wet and wild event in town at Miramar and Mt Vic in November, it was great to see the sun come out for an excellent day in Long Gully for the end of year shuttles in December. The plan is to have a shuttle day at least once a month. All shuttle days will be advertised via the facebook page, but you must register via the event on the club website.

National Series Kicks Off This Week

It's race season and the National Cup series kicks off this week in Bluff and it is only 7 weeks till Nationals in Rotorua starting February 15th. All the best to everyone competing.

National Cup DH Series Dates

Round 1, Bluff, Jan 4th

Round 2, Mt Hutt, Jan 12th

Round 3, Levin, Feb 2

Round 4, Auckland, Feb 8th

National Champs, Rotorua Feb 15th-17th.

Club Racing

21 April - Escape From Mt Crawford Goes Enduro

The Miramar Trail Project are jumping on the Enduro bandwagon. This year's event will see riders in two categories, Misdemeanor (easier) and Felony (harder) do 3 runs down a combination of Miramar trails. After each timed down hill run, there will be a mandatory, non timed liaison stage back up Conviction to the start. All proceeds will go back into trail building in the area. More details in the New Year.

Mt Vic Super D Back On In May

The Welly MTB Club will be partnering with PNP to bring the Mt Vic Super D back for 2013. This year it is being moved to May (final date tbc). This should see some more variable trail conditions and will give the Mt Vic Trails crew time to build a few new features for the race. Stay tuned for more details.

My how time flies. Whilst it seems like just yesterday since the AGM, we are now a third of the way through the year.

2012/2013 Committee

The new committee has been working away and it has been great to see some new faces come on board this year. Committee meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month. Meetings are open to all club members, so if you have a matter you would like to raise, then please email Russel, the Club Secretary so it can be added to the agenda. View the committee>>

Shuttle Days

The club is looking to run Shuttle Days at least once a month (weather permitting). The first two shuttle days at Long Gully have been a great success.

On November the 3rd we will be running a city focused shuttle day. This day will start in Miramar before heading over to Mt Vic. If you have mates who are keen to shuttle, but perhaps a bit daunted by the Long Gully Tracks, then this is the perfect intro to gravity assisted mountain biking. Register for the 3 Nov Shuttle Day.

Women's Festival Of Cycling

Shuttle Day New Zealand's first dedicated Women's Cycling Festival is going to be held over Labour Weekend. The Welly MTB Club is a proud sponsor of the event, and helping out with the Shuttle day on 21st October. Ladies, this will be something special. The Polhill tracks, including the ever popular Transient will be closed to all other users. Now is the time to register via the event website

Trail Building News

You may not know it, but the Welly MTB Club is so much more than just Long Gully. Club members have always been involved in projects outside of the Long Gully trails, and in the past few months the club has looked to formalise some of these arrangements with the City Council.

Long Gully

Tony Harvie continues to do great work on the Race Track, and Adrian Armstrong is still fettling away at the 420 line. Long Gully Manager, Jono Baddiley is in the process of getting a plan of attack together for the other trails, so expect to see some dig days advertised via the Facebook pages soon. Please remember that all trails at Long Gully have an overseerer, so please contact them before starting any trail work. Long Gully Trails >>

Miramar Track Project

It has been a busy winter out in Miramar. Jail Brake has been recieving some some TLC, with new drainage, and an all new Pine Tree berm. The Miramar crew have also been working away at a new trail called Solitary. This will run on the ridgeline between Conviction and Jailbrake, and will be less groomed, but aimed to be as much fun as Jail Brake. The top third is currently open as a pilot track, take it easy on your first run down as this is still very much a work in progress.

The Miramar Track Project also recieved an accolade in the recent Wellington Community Awards with a highly commended in the Health and Well Being category (much to their surprise). Miramar digs run every Sunday at 2pm. Check their facebook pages for digs >>

Mystic Portal

Eugene has been fettling away on the track and by all accounts it is running better than ever. Eugene posts dig days on the Club FB site, so look out for these if you are keen to help out.

Mt Vic Trails

Steve Wallace (former Makara Peak chair) has agreed with the council to manage the MTB trails on Mt Vic under the banner of the Club. Steve has already led a couple of digs, tidying up some spots on the Ridgeline/Super D track. Steve has got some great plans for the area, so like the Mt Vic Trails FB page to keep up to date.

Brooklyn Trail Builders

Craig, Kev, Andrew and Chris have been going great guns over the past few years developing 12km of trail in the Polhill area. After discussions with the Brooklyn boys, they have now come on board a project of the club. The lads of recently set up a face book page with the future plans, which include a new downhill only option along side the bottom part of Transient. They are also working hard with the WCC to open up the other side of the valley to MTBs. We welcome the Brooklyn Trail Builders on board. They have regular Wednesday lunch time digs, and will be posting more regular weekend digs on the new descending tracks up on the Facebook page.

WTA Diggers Summit

The Welly MTB Club is working together with the Wellington Trails Alliance to host the first ever Wellington specific trail builders conference, the Diggers Summit. Spread over 2 days, there will be a mix of indoor and outdoor, theory and practical, social and riding activities. The idea behind the summit is to bring together all trail builders in the Wellington region and provide an oppourtunity to get to know each other and share knowledge. There are more details on the Club Website, a facebook event for registering your interest and a twitter feed for updates.

Club Riders Overseas

It has been a bit of a mixed bag for our racers overseas. Unfortunately Sarah Atkin had a pretty good crash and did her collar bone that saw her out of the final rounds of the World Cup and World Champs. Brynn Atkinson has been whipping up a storm in Norway at the final round of the DH World Cup, where Richard Leacock qualified for the finals. On the Enduro side there were strong showings from Wellington locals, Jeremy Blake and Mike Williamson in the MegaAvalanche.

Mike the Hippy has moved on from Europe, survived a mugging on arrival in South America and started up work digging in Chile. We'll be looking to reproduce some of his updates (un edited of course) shortly.

If you have any updates from other Welly riders, please drop us a line.

Reminder - Club Memberships Are Open Again

Joining up for the club has never been easier or cheaper. Just head along to the club website, and you can do it all online, with a credit card or direct credit. For the super low price of $30, you'll not only get access to the trails in Long Gully, but you will be supporting all of our other projects city wide. If you sign up for the Nov 3rd Shuttle Day, you'll even get a discount on your membership.

And remember, only Club Members are allowed to ride the Long Gully tracks outside of shuttle days. This is liability and saftey issue for the club.

If you enjoy riding the gully trails, then please join up as a member. This ensures that you see, read and agree to the Long Gully rules. Please respect the fact that these are on private land, and that the club has worked long and hard to ensure these trails are there for members to use.

Membership Tags Are On Their Way

For those of you who have signed up and are wondering where your tag is, they should be in your mailbox shortly. The reason they are so late is due to a pretty catastrophic machine breakdown at our tag supplier. But we have the tags now, and you will be recieving yours shortly.

Well cheers for making it through this mammoth update. Here is looking forward to a great summer of riding ahead. Good luck to everyone heading up to Levin this weekend for the second round of the NZDH series.

The good news is that we are still taking registrations for the shuttle day.

If you have registered, but can now no longer make the day, then please let us know. You have the option of staying prepaid for our next shuttle day (we aim to have one every month) OR a refund (if paid via PayPal less a small account fee). In either case, please email events @ wmtbc.org.nz

We are now accepting membership applications for the 2012/2013 membership year. Join today!

This year there are some changes:

You can do it all online - no need to print out and post anything back to us

You can pay by credit card - via PayPal

We have simplified the membership options.

Here is a quick FAQ that we have compiled. If you still have a question, please email club@wmtbc.org.nz

What happened to the base club membership?

The committee has decided to roll the club membership and the Long Gully supporters membership all into one. This was done for two reasons:

Based on feedback from members who were unsure about what base club membership entitled them to

To simplify member management for our volunteers who look after this.

So we have rolled the two into one - easy! This year's membership is $10 cheaper than if you had a club and Long Gully supporter membership last year - deal!

What do I get for my membership?

Members of the Wellington MTB Club get many benefits:

Reduced entry fees at Club organised events

Receive our regular newsletters

Affiliation to BikeNZ (required for race licence)

Access to Freelap timing system

Access to Long Gully trails

The knowledge that they are supporting trail building throughout the Wellington Region - trail karma plus!

How long will it take to process my membership?

Once your payment is confirmed, your membership will be confirmed. If you pay by Credit Card this will happen straight away, if by Direct Credit this will take a few days.

There is then a manual step where we will send you out your tag, membership card, and car pass (if you have purchased one). This may take up to two weeks, but usually will be quicker than that. If you are concerned that you have not received your card, please contact us. Either at memberships @ wmtbc.org.nz or secretary @ wmtbc.org.nz

What happens if I am under 18?

The club still requires that your parent or guardian accepts the waiver. This means that if you are under 18, regardless of whether you plan to use the Long Gully tracks you will need to supply your parent/guardian's contact details. We will then call them to confirm that they accept the waiver on your behalf, once this is done we will approve your membership and send out your card and tags.

How long will my membership last?

The membership year runs until the 30th of June 2013. There are no prorata membership rates for part year membership.

Will my old log in still work?

Sadly no. We were not able to migrate all the old accounts to the new membership system. Members with existing site logins will need to sign up for new accounts on the site.